Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful.This is the watch to get among the new breed of smartwatches!By DB12Bought the LG GWR after returning the Sony Smartwatch 3. Did of lot of research and initially, the Sony had won me over based on specs like GPS + NFC built-in. Didn't care for the Moto 360's 'flat tire' and poor battery life. I had the Sony for two weeks before returning. I've had the LG-GWR for a few days now and it's a keeper! Here's what I can definitively say:

1. Display - by far a significant step above any other smartwatch currently available. When in 'standby' mode, it is still as bright as can be....none of this 'ambient light' dimmed display of the Sony, Moto 360 or other watches. Believe me, from a real world pov, this is huge. After the initial 'new toy' feeling rubs off, you just want the watch to tell the time clearly and the ambient display of other watches is useless. I must have read and viewed dozens of reviews on the LG GWR and can't understand how they don't play this feature up more.

2. Charging - the Sony Smartwatch micro USB cable is a huge hassle to plug/unplug each time you need to charge. Using a dock is actually substantially easier and more practical, in spite of having an additional piece of hardware.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful.Android Wear is something different, but welcoming, and this watch showcase it well.By S. ChhinAndroid Wear has a different personality than Samsung (Tizen) operating system.

Physically, the watch looks and feels great. The genuine leather band is very comfortable, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't usually wear watches, or necklaces, rings, etc. and is a big difference in comfort versus my old Galaxy Gear with hard rubber bands; which squeezed my wrist. The front face bezel also protrude out just enough that will help the screen from getting hit first or scratched first. The watch itself is well built, and is not too heavy; you will not notice it on. It has an all metal casing, except for the back which is hard plastic and houses the external charging pins and a heart-rate monitor. On the very first day of wearing it, people were interested seeing that it is designed as a military-style chrono, yet is a smartwatch. I was playing with it in class, and that got many attentions.This is totally a man watch, and having replaceable bands is great; I was thinking of a gunmetal stainless steel band for more formal occasions.

The screen is P-OLED (Plastic Organic ...) which is very bright even on the lowest settings (for indoors). So, far it performed good enough during the day. The contrast and color seems correct, with blues, reds, blacks and white being true. Just remember, as with all smartwatch at this time, the ppi, the density is not the highest, so users that are used and have been spoiled by those high density phone screens will only notice when looking for it flaws.The screen is "always-on" by default, and can be turned off under its settings; by pressing down and holding the crown/dial briefly. The always-on display face is different than it primary display face. It will be more simpler in general for all face design, and more minimal; no seconds hand and a bit dimmer. Still very readable. The watch is quick to respond to the wrist rising motion, automatically displaying its primary face/main screen. Once the main screen is on, you can say "Ok Google", to start a voice command. Voice commands examples can be seen in the Android Wear phone app, and within the watch by simply swiping upwards; there is an arrow to reminds you in case you forget. Voice recognition seems to be responsive and correct so far, even with a slightly noisy environment (inside a classroom with classmates chatting, or at home with the TV on and kids running around). By responsive, please note it is the same as just as using your Android phone, when using the Google Search voice feature. When you say a command, it will take a moment to analyze it, then will post a visual text to what it thinks you said. Again, so far it seems spot on unless you said weird stuff.

The Android Wear OS is much different than my old Samsung Galaxy Gear Tizen interface. AW is more visually, with large graphics, and cards. If you are used to using the Google Search widget, where it display cards such as "distance to X, weather, etc., then you'll feel like at home. Samsung Tizen on the other hand uses more icons, with basic text format. AW is much prettier, and more pleasing to demonstrate to friends, and is easier on the eyes. Bottomline, AW is only a visual indicator, versus Tizen which handles both. Some disadvantages I noticed in two days of use: There are no speaker, so in AW OS in general, and this watch will not allow you to talk like Inspector Gadget like my old Galaxy Gear did. Also, alarms and rings on it will be a visual and vibration alerts. AW OS is like a mini smartphone on a physical watch; when you want to make a call, or receive a call for example, you can tell the watch to do it, and will still have pick-up your smartphone and talk on it. In a way, it does make sense, even though it did look cool and more convenient conversating over my Galaxy Gear watch while driving. But really, talking on a watch is not effective when in a public outside environment--where you should keep you conversations private via a phone instead.

Overall, I would recommend this watch for the design and OS. Just know its differences between Android Wear OS and Samsung Tizen, and know their advantages and disadvantages; and you'll be happy. Everything overall is perfect, but I do miss a speaker. Still an excellent product and worth the $300 asking price. I owned normal watches that cost much more, and they didn't have this much features.

Pros:LooksGet ready for compliments and questions. The beautiful thing about this smart watch is it looks like a regular watch at 1st glance.

Always on screenOne of the main things I love about this watch is the option for always on screen. No blank screen here. Each watch face as its unique always on screen/watch face.

Watch FacesThis has some of the nicest watch faces on the market.All have great function and look very sporty. Think of Formula 1 tag .

ScreenPlastic oled screen. This screen blows away any smart watch screen on the market. Bright, vibrant and great thing about oled, it only lights the pixels it needs and keeps rest dark, that is how it archives amazing battery in always on mode.

FeelHas a very nice quality feel with all metal design

Swapable bandsThe thing I love about this watch is the design where you can use any band. The moto 360 had a poor design where the watch band was installed behind the plastic back. The design resulted in 2 cracking backs and on my 2nd, returned my moto 360 for the gwatch r. Band is standard 22mm and will take any regular band on the market.

BatteryAs I write this, my watch started at 100% battery at 9am. Its now 11:45 pm and I use my watch heavly. On my moto 360, I would be in the teens for battery with the always on screen feature off. Right now, with heavy use, my battery reads 49% and that's with always on screen.

Charging cradleUnfortunately, there is not qi charging but the dock lg uses for its watches is a close second. Simply set your watch on included charger and in around an hour, your fully charhed.

Android wear OSThis watch like the moto 360, gear live, Asus zen watch and lg gwatch is all powered by Googles latest OS android wear. Uses google now voice recognition and voice commands and makes Samsung's svoice look like outdated software. Dead on with the best voice recognition software out and a rapidly growing app store. This is the future of smart watch OS's.Cons:No qi chargingI was spoiled with my moto 360 qi charger but I'm over it.

Bottom line if you want a very sport smart watch that looks like a regular watch at 1st glance and will get you through what I'm guessing pretty close to 2 days, and able to use any watch band, this is your best bet.Android wear is almost in beta and will only get better with time.